Oh, back to the motorbikes.
You know that my Black Suzuki 250cc which I loved got stolen. Very shit ordeal.
But anyway, a few weeks after that a good french friend (Romain) left Beijing for good, and as he couldn’t see his little crappy scooter he just gave it to me. A free shitty but awesome motorcycle.
It’s one of the philipino style ones. I’ll attach some pictures.
(Romain & his bike the day before he left)
I’ve really grown to love it. It rattles, and shakes… but its transport, and if it allows me not to catch the subway, bus and taxis then its already fantastic!
Oh and then as a Chinese friend (Danielle) heard that my motorbike got stolen (because I posted it on the chinese social media, so that if anyone saw it, they could get in contact with me) She contacted one of her friends that’s still in Beijing who agreed to sell me his more-or-less racing bike for a quite cheap price. Good friends of friends…there’s always a potential that something miraculous will come out of it.
(Left: Benelli 600 getting its Oil change….Blaaack)
(Right: Benelli 600 back. Twin exhausts)
And as he was fixing the front suspension so that it was rideable, another friend that has a business modifying and customising motorbikes (Adrien from Blackbridge Racing) contacted me to say that some guy ordered a dirt-bike looking thing through him, but when it arrived the guy cancelled, so if I wanted it eh would give it to me at the price he bought it for.
So that was a 9,000 元 bike. (which comes with all the plates and the registration and everything) for only 8,000 元。
I thought I’d check it out, and see what it was all about, and after a quick test ride… I decided…yep this bike makes me incredibly happy. And so I bought it.
It is, however a chinese bike….which I swore I’d never buy again because of all the problems I had with the first one. But he assured me that as this brand (Shineray) has a long history in China, and participates in motor-cross (dirt bike racing & the insane jumps and everything) then the quality control and everything was very good, and more in the direction of traditional Japanese bikes rather than normal Chinese bikes.
Also he said he do all the servicing if anything broke down immediately.
So that was a yes.
It ….is…awesome. It’s a 250cc, single cylinder, but has loads of torque (pulling power) can only go a max of 105 km/ h but that’s fine because most of the time cars are only going 40km/ h here.
Huge ground clearance…and just generally great quality.
The only bad thing is that the fuel tank is a bit small.
Also you can slide it… and it’s got very predictable handling.
So I’m loving it.
(The Shineray outside Blackbridge’s place)
(The Shineray after the dirt-biking…couldn’t resit taking the picture at the petrol station)
Went for a bit of dirt biking/ mud-sliding in a muddy, garbage skewed filed near blackbridge
(Camouflaged?)
(off the beaten track and loving it)
And then 2 weeks after buying that, the more-or-less racing bike was ready.
So there we go. 3 bikes.
Also I’ve been working with Adrien from Blackbridge Racing (the guy that sold me the dirt-bike thing) to get the little Philipino shit-box up to standard. (I wrote an article for the website… so hopefully you’ll be able to see that soon)
(Adrien having a look at the Suzuki’s steering column & tightening it)
(New bearings & axel ordered compared to the old units)
(old ruined front bearings)
It’s strange because no body that doesn’t know anything about bikes wants to buy it. …basically because it looks like such a piece of shit. (in fact I don’t even have to lock it)
BUT, the people that ask about it are all mechanics.
The mechanics can see the value in it.
So I know its a good little beast.
And… the best feeling is that it looks like a piece of shit… and you just know its harassment to someone’s eyes when they’re looking at it. Which makes me feel good…. being able to piss off other people just by driving past them.
Plus it doesn’t matter that it looks shit, because its mechanically perfect…more or less, so its just a tool that allows for freedom.
Freedom from having to take the bus, or subway and sharing next to all those terrible things that some refer to as ‘other people’.
By the way check out Blackbridge Racing
http://blackbridgemotorcycles.com/
Here’s a quick picture as to the kind of builds they can do:
(BBM build #10, base = Benelli 1300 or something)
(BBM blue ducati café racer- Ducati SS1000DS)
(BBM blue ducati café racer – notice the open clutch plate compartment, from my understanding most Ducati’s have a dry clutch, so this makes it possible, but it also generates a lot of noise….but tradition is tradition)
They do amazing jobs, and Adrien is a great guy, very willing to give a bike the right attention if he feels its worth it.
Turns out the little Suzuki is called the ‘Smash’- yep what a great name. And Adrien has taken a real liking to it
Recent Comments